Was the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve ate an apple or a pomegranate? And really, what could be wrong with enjoying either one?
But this single act, a choice, is portrayed as the moment that sent humanity into an exile of cosmic proportions.
In this article, we will explore the wisdom hidden in this ancient narrative and how it applies to us who follow Jesus the Christ.
The Narrative of Adam and Eve
After God planted the garden and assigned Adam and Eve their responsibility, He gave them the first command in the bible. The command goes “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Adam and Eve were invited to eat from any tree but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
On a different day, we meet a strange character also present in the garden. This animal is described as being crafty at the outset.
The snake asks the woman a leading question. He says, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman naturally tells him about the specific tree, God forbid them to eat of.
Hearing the command, out of nowhere, the serpent claims bad intentions on God’s part. He proposes a motivation behind God’s command that Eve didn’t consider that both Adam and Eve accepted at face value.
He says something along the lines of, ‘God doesn’t want you to have what He has; that’s why He forbade you.’
When the woman heard the serpent’s perspective, a world of possibilities opened before her. She looked at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and it no longer seemed the same. Now it stirred desires within her and awakened a sense of power she could step into.
So she takes the fruit and eats it and gives it to Adam as well.
Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But the warning given by God did not come true. They did not die. It seemed as though the serpent was telling the truth, and God was not.
(Side note: This interpretation was taken by the Gnostics to portray the Old Testament God as evil and the serpent as an advocate for knowledge.)
But the Hebrew scriptures are not primarily something to be read once for information. It was meant to be recited, memorized, and pondered repeatedly. Especially the Stories in the first five books of the Old Testament that are written with literary patterns and symbolic representations that reward reflection and rereading.
Besides, if the Israelites did not consider God trustworthy, why would they place this story as humanity’s origin in their sacred scriptures and give it such importance? Why would they praise God’s faithfulness throughout those scriptures?
Instead of reaching an immediate conclusion on our first reading, we need to take a closer look at the text.
Alienation
Immediately after they eat of the tree, they become aware of their nakedness, their vulnerabilities. The sense of alienation surrounded them.
They were one, yet became strangers to each other. Adam, who once called Eve “bone of my bone,” now begins to shift the blame to her. They also grow suspicious of God and hide from Him.
The environment entrusted to them became strange and posed a danger to them.
Now, the first reaction of a human entering the world is one of distress, as babies begin to cry as soon as they are born. Instinctively, they feel their powerlessness in the face of the countless threats that surround them.
Death
So what is the kind of death God warned about?
Here, death refers to a slow deterioration, a meaning that is also found elsewhere in the Old Testament.
In the book of Deuteronomy, after God gave the Israelites the Law, which contains instructions on how people should relate to God and one another, He presents them with two choices: life and death.
Life is associated with blessings and prosperity that come from following the Law, while death is linked to curses and exile resulting from prolonged broken relationships.
Because of the lack of trust in God that there will be enough for everyone, and the lack of trust between people that would otherwise aid in looking after their fellow humans, now everyone is left to fight for their survival.
One person’s good would have to be at the expense of another.
The decrees of God may seem insignificant enough to ignore or break. Yet one decision can trigger a chain of events that causes everything to unravel.
This was the death God warned about. That would ultimately lead humanity to a life of curse and exile, to death. One that is not immediate but Pernicious
In our lives, we see some prosper by doing what should not be done. We may be persuaded by sin that promises empowerment and freedom, just as Eve was when she saw the tree. And that is the message of the story.
This wisdom literature challenges the mentality of ‘if it feels good and tastes good, then it must be right.’ It reveals the long-term consequences of our actions that are shaping the world.
Jesus
The story of Adam and Eve is echoed in Jesus as he was tested in the wilderness by the Satan.
He was tempted to act on his hunger after a 40-day fast. Jesus replies, Life isn’t sustained by food alone, but by God. He trusts good intentions on God’s part in a mist of hunger where Adam and Eve doubted in abundance.
Again, he was tempted to take power over the world in the way the Satan proposed, which would alleviate the suffering he would have to go through.
The adversary knows exactly what he is doing.
While Eve saw the desirable fruit and took it, Jesus saw the fearful weight of obedience and pressed on regardless. Though human, Jesus did not succumb to his survival instincts, which ultimately would have led to his demise.
He endured the test even to death, and in doing so, proved he could be trusted to represent God in the world, the very calling given to humanity in the beginning.
And if God is faithful to the humans that disobeyed, how much more to the one who trusted in him?
God didn’t let him see decay but raised him up from the dead. Moreover, in him, God opened a way for others to do the same.
The fruit that promised power in the immediate brought about death. Obedience, though it promised danger, brought about life.
Now, by Jesus and by the Spirit that went out from the Father, people are empowered to look at the allure of things that bring death and refuse them and get on with their original responsibility to take care of the world and restore the fallen to its former glory.
The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this!
